Club Bon Aire Casino and Bar, Las Vegas, Bella Ladies V-Neck Tee

Venue History

Bon Aire Club was one of the early roadside casino, nightlife, and lodging venues on the emerging Las Vegas Strip, operating during the years when Highway 91 was still transforming from a desert approach road into the entertainment corridor known worldwide today. Opened in 1945 by Harvey Bynum, the property stood on the site now occupied by Casino Royale, placing it in what would become one of the most heavily traveled sections of Las Vegas Boulevard. At the time, the Strip was still a scattered mix of clubs, auto courts, small casinos, supper rooms, and neon-lit roadside businesses. Bon Aire Club fit squarely into that early landscape. Rather than a massive resort, it combined the intimacy of a nightclub with the practicality of an auto court, catering to motorists, gamblers, locals, and travelers looking for food, drinks, entertainment, and a place to stay along the highway. Bynum was already connected to early Southern Nevada nightlife and gaming circles. Before Bon Aire, he had been associated with Pair O’ Dice on Highway 91, one of the pioneering clubs that helped establish the Strip’s commercial potential. With Bon Aire, he continued that tradition, creating a venue that reflected the entrepreneurial, personality-driven nature of early Las Vegas hospitality. The club offered gaming, cocktails, dining, music, and social entertainment in the style of mid-1940s supper clubs, while the accompanying auto court served the growing number of visitors arriving by car. Its appeal came from convenience, atmosphere, and location, key ingredients in the era before large hotel-casinos dominated the boulevard. Bon Aire’s significance also lies in what surrounded and followed it. In 1946, the future Flamingo project was announced nearby, signaling the arrival of a larger, more luxurious resort model. As the Strip evolved through the 1950s and early 1960s, properties like Bon Aire gradually gave way to more modern developments. Though modest compared with the megaresorts that later occupied the corridor, Bon Aire Club remains an important early chapter in Strip history, a reminder of the small clubs and roadside properties that helped build Las Vegas before the age of corporate spectacle.